Friday, September 21, 2007

Saturday, September 15, 2007

As you can no doubt surmise I have abandon my 9 month quest for the iPhone. The quest does not end easily. If Apple announced within 3 months that the iPhone would appear in Canada I would surely wait for its arrival. But that will not happen. I believe the iPhone will not reach these maple leaf shores for at least a year if not more...or God forbid....never. Despite Rogers protestations to the contrary. So when Apple announced the new iPod Touch, I jumped at the chance. Here was a device that I have been looking for. This will be a surprised to many of you but I do not own a cell phone. For various reasons I have not wanted to be at the beck and call of anyone and also been deterred by the prohibited pricing. So I have turned my back on the cell phone. Now, you may ask, why have I coveted the iPhone......For one reason. I have always wanted to have the Internet and email in the palm of my hand. Ever since watching Star Trek original series I have always wanted a "Tricorder" that would give me the world's knowledge at my finger tips. When the iPod Touch was announced I thought my wish was fulfilled.....But as always with dream fulfilment there are prat falls. The first reviews of the iPod Touch are good but with one craveat....Something is terrible wrong with the screen!? It seems that the first round of iPod Touch releases have a problem with "white to black" gradient . The Touch has a very dark portfolio. Meaning it is very hard to distinguish features in a photo or video that is in a dark setting. I was flabbergasted when I heard the reviews...I would have never expected Apple to release their best iPod with the not so best video display. I began to imagine the scenario in China -the iPhone was on the assembly line and there must have been many screens being tested that did not pass the high quality expected to be among the inaugural screens on the iPhone. If you remember the first reviews about the iPhone, it had amazingly sharp contrast . Did Apple set aside the not so amazing screens, that did not pass the mustered for the iPhone, but may have been reserved for the inevitable release of the up coming iPod Touch....I hope not.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Well technically Canadians can now buy an unlocked iPhone....But for a price.Puremobile is now selling unlocked 8 gig iPhones (personally made by that 17 year old kid), on their web site. It costs US$1081...plus US$20 shipping...It also comes with a voided warranty because each of the phones have been opened up and soldered....and a warning not to ever update or restore the phone..."There are absolutely no returns or refunds on this product"...and then there's a video of an iPhone using a Fido SIM card...so ends the sales pitch.

Good luck. Let me know how it turns out when you buy one. I for one will not bite. Too expensive, too many pitfalls. The iPhone is a very complex gizmo. A year without a warranty is a long way to go without a safety net. And the no return policy of Puremobile's should make one pause before leaping into the abyss. You could spend a large amount of money only to open the box and find a dead iPhone and there would be nothing you could do about it. Also the "No Restore" is a deal killer. I know for a fact that many iPhones out there get kinda of wonky after a couple of weeks and need a restore to get itself back to normal. No Thanks. I'll wait to see what the software unlock has to offer. And so far those companies offering the software hack have become ominously silent.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Well its been 47 days since my last post...And there is still nothing to report...Nada....Bubkus.....Rogers is quiet as a church mouse...And don't get me started on the BestBuy fiasco...The only news I can report is that Europe is about to get its iPhone. T-Mobile will carry it in Germany, Orange in France and O2 in Britain. As for Canada, Rogers and Apple are eerily silent....nothing but tumble weeds blowing in the sage brush. Since the romance between Rogers and Apple has fizzled I am starting to think that a shot gun marriage is in order. In the last week it has been reported in the news and all of the tech blogs that no less than 3 hacks have been discovered to unlock the iPhone. The first one to be reported was by a 17 year old kid on his summer vacation. He unlocked the iPhone using software and hardware manipulation to get his iPhone working with T-Mobile instead of AT&T. A neat stunt but when I hear the words "soldering." I "shuddered". I still remember my last attempts of soldering in an electronics class in High School. I soldered my circuit board to my desk...So I will not be opting for that hack. But no less than 2 hours after reading about the iPhone Wunder-Kid, I heard from my friend that there was a website up called iPhone-Sim-Free claiming they had a software only hack to unlock the iPhone. And then Engadget posted a video using the software to unlock one of their phones. Sure enough the hack works. There on the iPhone was the word "T-Mobile" and the word was good. Then the next day the company Uniquephones, who unlock phones as a business, also claimed to have a software hack to unlock the iPhone. Their claim was taken very seriously by AT&T who promptly threatened legal action against Uniquephones.

So what does all of this unlocking do with me getting an iPhone? Well it may be the only way for a Canadian to get their hands on an iPhone in the foreseeable future. If I was in Europe or Asia I might play the waiting game but I'm thinking Rogers will not budge on its data rates and Apple probably does not think Canada is a big enough of a market to bother with for some time.

But there are still some land-minds ahead if I decide to go the "unlock the iPhone with a hack" route.

1. Legality. Can I unlock the iPhone legally? Some say yes some say no. This is one for the Lawyers. I'm not too concerned about this one but it would be nice to be on the right side of the law...for once.

2. Warranty. If its a "firmware" hack, even if its only software, it pretty much voids my warranty...and on a product as complex as an iPhone that's not a good thing to happen. I would be chewed, stewed and barbecued out of luck if the phone stops working.

3. Firmware Updates. Apple could come along and send an update which would "brick" my iPhone. The people at iPhone-Sim-Free say that their software is Firmware safe but I doubt it. More likely it would be an on going cat and mouse game between Apple and them to keeping the phone unlocked.

4.Rogers Data Rates. Nothing has changed with Rogers. Their data rates still suck. No unlimited data rates for me. I would have to be very careful to use WiFi and not Edge while I was surfing the web and checking email. As for YouTube it would cost me about $200 to watch 1 video on Rogers data plan.....crazy.

Well what to do? Do I go for it and hope that the unlock software is easy to implement, firmware resistant, and carefully tiptoe my way around Rogers data plans or wait....and wait....and wait for Rogers and Apple to get their act together.......I will have to think on it. If any Canadains out there goes for it I would love to hear how it went. Email me at leo_eddy@telus.net.